Credit: The Associated Press

FILE - This March 15, 2013, file photo shows Google bicycles at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. In the era of intense government surveillance and secret court orders, a murky multimillion-dollar market has emerged.

Credit: The Associated Press

This June 28, 2013 photo shows the outside of a Verizon switching station in downtown Washington. In the era of intense government surveillance and secret court orders, a murky multimillion-dollar market has emerged. Paid for by U.S. tax dollars, but with little public scrutiny, surveillance fees charged in secret by technology and phone companies can vary wildly.

prevnext

WASHINGTON — How much are your private conversations worth to the government? Turns out, it can be a lot, depending on the technology.

In the era of intense government surveillance and secret court orders, a murky multimillion-dollar market has emerged. Paid for by U.S. tax dollars, but with little public scrutiny, surveillance fees charged in secret by technology and phone companies can vary wildly.